Chapter One
Angel Marston continued to clean away the mess on the floors of the biker bar where she worked. The place was a real shithole, and she wished there was something else for her to do other than clean away beer bottles and the occasional used condom wrapper. Whatever happened in the club stayed in the club, and no one spoke. It was the biker club that ruled the town. No one was under any illusions that the sheriff’s office had any such control. They didn’t. If you wanted something done, you made sure to see the president of the club or you’d never see any kind of justice.
The Skulls controlled the town, and if anyone had a beef with another person they came here to get it sorted out. The crime rate was down, and no one gave a shit about the occasional beating they witnessed in the middle of Fort Wills. They were a small town situated off the beaten track. The town made money through the club and a few investments in the land markings around the area.
The Skulls were not commercial trading, and they were not about the niceness that the Law Castle Bad Boys were known for. The Skulls were a real bad-ass biker club. They worked hard, played harder, and sometimes someone got beat or killed. Letting out a sigh, Angel leaned over the bar to grab the cleaning cloth and bacterial spray. The skirt she wore was down to her knees even though the club demanded miniskirts that only covered the ass. She, however, wasn’t here working willingly. No, The Skulls had taken her as a down payment for one of her father’s debts. While she worked for them, lived under their roof, and was seen around Fort Wills, then her father had to keep paying up the money he owed. Angel didn’t really know why her father had gone to them for money. Her mother, before she died, had set them up with plenty on the royalty payments from the books she had published.
Instead, her father wasted all the funds, borrowed money he couldn’t pay back, and then she got taken as collateral in the process. She hadn’t spoken to any of her friends, not that she had any, and when she left the bar she was escorted by a Prospect.
God, she hated her life more than ever. Turning around, she ignored the heavy metal music playing out and started wiping the tables down.
Several other girls were lying around or fucking some of the club members. Angel ignored them. There was nothing else for her to do other than clean, wait, and then get sent to her room when all was done.
Moans filled the air as she passed tables. Angel kept her gaze down not wanting to see what they were doing. She was nineteen and hadn’t been with a guy intimately. Sex wasn’t something easy for her.
“Oh, baby, you’ve got a big cock. I love your cock.”
Rolling her eyes, she picked up a beer bottle she’d missed and made her way to the bar. Mikey, one of the older members of the club, smiled at her as she passed. She nodded her head, finding it easier not to interact with them. They didn’t like her, and she’d gotten that from the glares and the sneers as they watched her. She didn’t understand why they hated her. Before she’d been taken from her home, without packing anything, Angel had never spoken to one of The Skulls, apart from the few she’d been in school with, but that was before they became official members, or patched in. She would never understand the lingo and hoped never to.
All Angel hoped for was her father to pay his debt so she could leave. Her hopes for her father paying his debts were diminishing every passing day. She’d been allowed a few phone calls with him, and each time he always told her to make the most of her situation and that he was only human. He’d also hinted for her to try to use her body, big though it was, to cut him some slack. What kind of father asked that of his child? There was a time when she’d loved being around her father. Now, she didn’t even know if she wanted him to live with the way he spoke to her. He’d told her there were worst fates than being with a Skull. She should learn to do something to help him out. The insults kept getting worse, and she dreaded his phone calls. She never asked for him to get in touch anymore either. Glancing around the club again she let out a sigh. The late nights, the sex, and everything around them were really starting to get to her. She hated it.
“You know, it would go a lot easier for you if you were nice to the guys,” Mikey said, handing her a glass of lemonade.
She took the drink he offered. “Thank you.”
Standing behind the bar, she sipped from the straw and didn’t say a word. Angel found it easier to keep her thoughts to herself rather than talk with anyone.
“Being closed off is not going to help your cause, sweetheart.”
Turning to look at the older man she wondered what to say to him. “I have no idea what to say. I’m here, and I don’t know what to say.” Staring down at her feet she felt heat fill her cheeks. The only people who were nice to her were the men’s women, “old ladies”, she’d heard them called. None of the women looked all that old, and neither did the men. Mikey was in his forties, and that wasn’t old at all.